runes and the mortal condition

8/10/2019 Runes and the Mortal Condition

1/11

Runes and the Mortal Condition in Old English PoetryAuthor(s): Maureen HalsallSource: The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 88, No. 4 (Oct., 1989), pp. 477-486Published by: University of Illinois PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27710232.

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2/11

Runes and the Mortal Condition

in

Old

English

Poetry

Maureen

Halsall,

McMaster

University

The

corpus

of

inscriptions

in

the Old

English

runic

alphabet

(or

futhorc)

is minute

in

comparison

to

the thousands

of

inscriptions

in

Norse

runes.

Insular

runic

texts

also differ from their

North

Ger

manic

counterparts

in

a

more

fundamental

way.

Scandinavian

runes

seem

to

have

been used

for

a

variety

of

purposes,

from

secular

to

magical.

With

the

exception

of

a

very

few,

the

bulk of

extant

Old

English

runes

were

incised

or

inscribed after the

conversion

of the

Anglo-Saxons

to

Christianity;

and

one

of

the

most

striking

facts about

them is

their

intimate connection

with the

new

religion.

It

requires

a

perverse

sort

of

ingenuity

to

detect

any

residual

pagan

Germanic

ele

ments

in

the

majority

of Old

English

runic texts.1

The fact is

that,

for

the

most

part,

Old

English

runic

inscriptions

are not

even

neutrally

secular

but, instead,

are

closely

tied

to

the Church

and,

in

particular,

are

used

to

emphasize

the medieval Christian attitude

toward

the

mortality

of

the human

body.

What evidence

can

be

adduced

to

support

these assertions?

First,

there

are

the Old

English

runes

found

in both insular

and

Continental

manuscripts.

These

very

obviously

postdate

the

conver

sion,

since

normally

they

were

produced

in

monastic

scriptoria

at

dates

ranging

from the late

eighth

century

until

long

after

the

Nor

man

Conquest.2

In

the

main,

the

extant

manuscripts

tend

to treat

runes

as

a

branch

of

study,

setting

them

out

in

futhorc

order

or

re

arranging them in alphabet order, listing their equivalents in the Ro

man

alphabet,

and sometimes

also

listing

the traditional

rune

names.

1

For

example,

see

Karl

Schneider's

ingenious

efforts in

Die

Germanischen

Runen

namen

(Meisenheim

am

Glan:

Verlag

Anton

Hain,

1956)

to

interpret

the

Old

English

Rune Poem

in

terms

of Germanic

myth

and ritual. See

pp.

338-99

on

rune

5:

Der

Donnergott

*{)uraz,

*|)uranaz:

V

and

also

my

comments

on

Schneider's

efforts

in

Maureen

Halsall,

The Old

English

Rune

Poem:

A

Critical

Edition

(Toronto:

Univ.

of

Toronto

Press,

1981),

p.

108.

2

For

an

exhaustive

treatment

of

English manuscript

runes,

both

in insular

and

in

Continental

codices,

see

Ren?

Derolez,

R?nica

Manuscripta:

The

English

Tradition

(Bruges:

De

Tempel,

1954).

Journal

of

English

and Germanic

Philology?October

?

1989

by

the Board

of

Trustees of the

University

of

Illinois

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/11

478

Halsall

Often Norse

futharks

and other

alphabets,

both

real

and

fictitious,

are

presented

for

comparison.3

An

excellent

example

of this

kind of

learned

handling

of

runes,

which

attempts

to

place

them

in

the broader

context

of their relation

ship

to

other

alphabets,

occurs

in

the so-called

De

inventione

linguarum.

In

this brief

Continental

treatise,

frequently

attributed

to

Alcuin's fa

mous

pupil,

Hrabanus

Maurus,

the

history

of letters is traced back

to

Moses; Hebrew,

Greek,

and

Roman

alphabets

are

supplied,

as

well

as

the curious

alphabet

of

Aethicus

Ister;

and variations

on

what

are

clearly Old English runes, accompanied by somewhat distorted Old

English

rune

names,

appear

in the false

guise

of

the letters used

by

the

heathen Germanic

peoples

of

northern

Europe.4

Also,

runes

of

English

origin

appear

to

have been used

for

cryp

tographic

purposes,

as

evidenced

in

the so-called

Isruna

Tract,

where

each

rune

is

represented

by

a

kind of

fraction,

consisting

of

two

num

bers which

together

reflect

the

position

that

rune

traditionally

held

in

one

of

the three divisions

(or ttir)

of

the

futhorc. Among

other

uses,

this

ingenious

invention in

cryptography

permitted

monks

to

commu

nicate

by tapping

out

messages

in

clopfruna

(their

medieval

equivalent

of Morse

code)

even

during

the silent hours.5 Such

examples

of

learned

play

with

the

futhorc

serve

to

demonstrate,

even more

clearly

than the

various

manuscript

rune

lists

or

the

De

inventione

linguarum,

that

by

late

Anglo-Saxon

times Old

English

runes were

part

of

the

normal

apparatus

of international Christian

scholarship.

The

puzzling

element

in

the

manuscript

evidence cited

is

not

that

runic lore should

have

spread

from

England

to

Continental

Europe

during

the

eighth,

ninth,

and tenth centuries.

This

could have

oc

curred

easily

in

a

number

of

ways:

via

the various

Anglo-Saxon

mis

sions

to

the Continent

or

through

Alcuin's influential

position

as

the

head

of

Charlemagne's

palace

school,

as

well

as

in

the

course

of

the

many

continuing

exchanges

of

books and visits of scholars between

England

and the

great

Continental monasteries

with known

insular

connections,

such

as

St.

Gall,

Bobbio,

Fulda,

or

W?rzburg.

What

teases

the mind

is

how runic

lore

managed

to

survive

long enough

3

See,

for

example,

the

reproduction

of

St.

John's College

MS.

17,

folio

5V

in

Derolez,

plate

III,

and also

his

discussion of

the

manuscript

on

pp.

26-34.

4

See,

for

example,

the version

of the

De inventione

text

in

Strasbourg

MS.

326,

folio

nor

reproduced

in

Derolez,

plate

Vila

and also his

discussion of the

manuscript

on

pp.

332-35

and

his variant editions of both

major

versions

of

the

text

on

pp.

354-55.

5See, for example, the version of the Isruna Tract in St. Gall MS. 270, p. 52, re

produced

in

Lucien

Musset,

Introduction

?

la

runologie:

en

partie d'apr?s

les

notes

de Fernand

Moss?,

Biblioth?que

de

philologie

germanique,

20

(Paris:

Aubier-Montaigne,

1965),

plate

XII,

the

discussion of the

manuscript

in

Derolez,

pp.

90?94,

and

Derolez's

recon

struction of

the

tract

on

pp.

120-22.



4/11

Runes

and the

Mortal Condition

in

Old

English

Poetry

479

after the conversion

for

this transmission

to

take

place. Why

did the

seventh-century

Roman

and Celtic

missionaries

to

the

English

not

suppress

runic letters

at

the

outset

as a

dangerous

vestige

of the

pagan

Germanic

past? Why

and

how did

they

incorporate

runes

into

Chris

tian

lore?

For

evidence

leading

to

an

answer,

the

nonmanuscript

runic

tradition

must

be examined.

Predating

manuscript

runes

by

as

much

as

four

centuries

are

epi

graphical

runes

incised

in

wood,

bone,

pottery,

metal,

and

stone.

Of

the five dozen

or

more

extant

Old

English

epigraphical inscriptions,

however, it is noteworthy that fewer than a dozen date from earlier

than the middle

of

the seventh

century.6

Of

course,

these

rare

ex

amples

exhibit

no

sign

of Christian influence.

They

consist

mainly

of

single

runes or

owners'

names

or

unintelligible

formulas,

scratched

on a

variety

of

objects,

such

as

brooches and

sword

hilts,

unearthed

in

the excavation of

early

Anglo-Saxon

burial sites.

Of

the

remaining

epigraphical

inscriptions,

dated after

a.d.

650

and

hence

firmly

in

the

postconversion

period, thirty-six

appear

on

stone

crosses or

on

Christian

grave

markers;7

at

least four runic

in

scriptions

are

incised

in

the wooden

fragments

of

the

oak

coffin

of

St.

Cuthbert;8

and three

more are on

reliquary

caskets,

the

best-known

being

the

Auzon

or

Franks Casket.9

It

is also

worth

mentioning

in this

context

that

even

the

inscriptions

on

apparently

nonreligious

or neu

tral

objects

often allude

to

man's

need

for divine

intervention.10

The

persistent

connection between

runes

and the

mortal

dilemma,

apparent

in

English epigraphical

inscriptions

of

the Christian

era,

be

comes more

readily explicable

when

one

examines the runic

stones

6

There is

as

yet

no

adequate publication

of

the

entire

corpus

of

English epigraphical

runic

inscriptions;

but

for

a

very

full

preliminary

bibliography

of

these,

see

Hertha

Marquardt, Die Runeninschriften des Britischen Inseln (G?ttingen: Vandenhoeck &

Ruprecht,

1961).

Also,

for

a

convenient

summary

of

the

dating

of

epigraphical

rune

finds

made

up

to

about

1970,

which

shows

regional

patterns

and

uses a.d.

650

as a

kind

of

pagan-Christian

watershed,

see

the

maps

in

R. I.

Page,

An

Introduction

to

English

Runes

(London:

Methuen,

1973),

pp. 26-27,

figs.

6 and

7.

7

See,

for

example,

Thornhill Cross

A

in

Ralph

Elliot,

Runes:

An

Introduction

(Man

chester:

Manchester

Univ.

Press,

1959),

plate

XV,

fig.

35

(EJ^elberht:

settaefter:

E|)el

wini:

. .

.)

and the

Hartlepool

I

name-stone

in

Page,

plate

1

(HildiJ^ryj)).

8

For

example,

see

the

drawing

of

the

ihs

xps

symbol

(too

imperfectly

visible

for

effective

photography)

from

one

fragment

of St. Cuthbert's

coffin

in

Page,

p.

173,

%

35

9For

the

inscriptions

on

the Franks Casket

see

Elliott,

plates

XIX-XXIII and

pp. 96-108;

also

Page,

pp. 174-82.

10For example, the inscription on the Whitby comb reads: d/[ ]us m/aeus god al

uwalud/o

h/e/lipae

cy-

[ My

God,

Almighty

God,

help

Cy(ne)- ]

(see

Page,

p.

168

and

plate

4),

and the

inscription

on

the

Derby bone-plate

reads:

god gecaj)

arae

had/da

\)i

J)is

wrat

[ God

saves

by

His

mercy

Hadda

who

wrote

this ] (see

Page,

pp.

166?68

and

plate

6).



5/11

480

Halsall

that

were

being

erected

in

Continental

Germania

at

the time of the

Anglo-Saxon

invasions.11

A

representative

example

is the

Kj0levik

Stone of

about

a.d.

450,

the traditional

date of the first arrival of

the

Anglo-Saxon

invaders;

its

inscription

reads:

HadulaikaR,

ek

Hagusta(l)daR,

hl(a)aiwid?

magu

minino.

Hadulaik

[rests here].

?I,

Hagustald,

interred

my

son

in

a

funeral

mound.12

This is

not

radically

dissimilar from the

inscription

on

Great Urswick

Stone i of about a.d. 750:

Tunwini

settae

aefter

Torhtredae

becun

aefter

his

baeurnae;

gebiddaes \>er

saulae.

Tunwini set

up

a

monument

for Torhtred

his

son.

Pray

for his

soul.13

Clearly,

both

are

memorial

stones,

with

inscriptions

in

crude allit

erative

verse,

expressing

the

grief

of

a

bereaved father

at

the loss

of

his

son.

The

Kj0levik

Stone,

however,

simply

presents

us

with

a

pitiful

human fact: that

Hagustald's

son

proved

mortal.

The

closing

prayer

of the Great Urswick Stone

opens up

a

supernatural possibility:

that,

beyond the temporal dorn (or favorable judgment by men) of the dead

son

named

on

the

stone,

there

may

be

an

everlasting

dorn

(or

favorable

judgment

by

God

and his

angels).14

11

Photographs

of

these

early

Continental

runestones

are

conveniently

available

in

the second volume of

Wolfgang

Krause

and Herbert

Jankuhn,

Die

Runeninschriften

im

?lteren Futhark

(G?ttingen:

Vandenhoeck

&

Ruprecht,

1966),

where the memorial

stones

numbered

71-94

warrant

particular

attention.

12

For

the

Kj0levik

Stone

see

Krause

#75

or

Musset,

plate

V.

13

For

Great Urswick Stone

i

see

Page,

pp.

154-55.

14Compare

Seafarer,

11.

72-80a

in the G.

P.

Krapp

and

E. V. K.

Dobbie edition

of

The

Exeter

Book,

The

Anglo-Saxon

Poetic

Records,

3 (New

York: Columbia Univ.

Press,

1936), p. 145:

Forl?n [)aet

bi?

eorla

gehwam aeftercwe^endra

lof

lifgendra

lastworda

betst,

JDaet

e

gewyrce,

aer

he

on

weg

scyle,

fremum

on

foldan

wi? feonda

ri\\>,

deorum daedum deofle

togeanes,

JDaet

ine aelda beam

aefter

hergen,

ond

his lof

sij^an

lifge

mid

englum

awa

to

ealdre,

ecan

lifes

blaed,

dream

mid

dugu[}um.

And

so,

for

every

noble,

that

will

be his

praise

among

the

living

who

speak

after

his

death,

the

best of

reputations,

that,

before he

must

go

on

his

way,

he should

manage to bring it about, through strenuous actions on this earth against the

malice of

foes,

through daring

deeds

against

the

devil,

that the

sons

of

men

will

after

praise

him and

that

his

reputation

will live

always

and forever

among

the

angels,

the reward of eternal

life,

joyous

celebration

among

the tried and

true

warrior band.



6/11

Runes

and theMortal

Condition

in Old

English

Poetry

481

It

is

unnecessary

to note

here that burial rituals

are

central

to

the

religious

practices

of

most

nations. The

prodigious

labor

involved

in

setting

up

and

carving

runes

on

the

great

pagan

memorial

stones

that

almost

litter

Scandinavia offers

convincing

testimony

to

the

impor

tance

of

this

kind of

piety

among

the ancient

Germanic

peoples.

Hence,

for

recent

Anglo-Saxon

converts,

the

use

of

runes

on

Chris

tian memorial

stones

in

seventh-century

England

had

the

potential

advantage

of

establishing

a

bridge

between the old

and the

new

burial

rituals,

in

much the

same

way

that the

use

of

familiar Germanic

dryht

terminology in contemporary Old English Christian poetry, such

as

C

dmons

Hymn,

made the

lordship

of the

Christian God

emotion

ally

real

and

therefore

more

readily acceptable

to

Anglo-Saxon

audiences.15

In

the minds

of the missionaries

to

the

English,

the

most

important

aspect

of

the

temporal

world

was

the international

sphere

of

Christian

scholarship,

to

which the Mediterranean

alphabets

constituted

the

key.

These

missionaries

were

men

for whom the

truly important

letters

were

those of the three so-called sacred

languages:

Hebrew,

Greek,

and

Latin,

in

which

were

written the

texts

that formed

the

basis of their

spiritual

lives. Brief Germanic

inscriptions

scratched in

angular

northern

distortions

of

alphabet

letters

would

hold

no

par

ticular

appeal

for

them,

unless the barbaric

symbols might

furnish

a

vehicle

for

conveying

some

aspect

of the

gospel

message.

If the

es

tablished

linkage

between

runes

and

mortality

could

be

exploited,

however,

then the

runic

letters,

familiar from

inscriptions

on

pre

Christian

gravestones,

might

be

used

to

teach Germanic

converts

the

difference between

pagan

stoicism

in

the face

of

loss and Christian

hope

of

a

better

world after death.

In

an

attempt

to

understand

the

extent to

which the connection

between

epigraphical

runes

and

mortality

came to

be

exploited

in

ver

nacular

literature,

it is useful

to

begin

by

examining

one

of the earliest

recorded

texts

of

an

Old

English

poem,

which,

significantly,

is itself

an

epigraphical

inscription.

Fragments

of

eighteen

lines

from

a

poem

about the Crucifixion

are

carved

in Northumbrian

runes

on

a

huge

stone

cross

(usually

dated

about

A.D..

700)

whose

pieces

were reas

sembled

early

in

the nineteenth

century

and later

placed

under

cover

inside the

church

at

Ruthwell

in

Dumfriesshire,

Scotland.16

15

See the

Northumbrian version

of C dmons

Hymn

in

E.

V. K.

Dobbie's edition

of

The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 (New York: Columbia

Univ.

Press,

1942),

p.

105.

16

For

a

full-length

representation

of all four

sides,

made before

the

cross

was

placed

under

cover

in

the

church,

see

the

drawings

in

George Stephens,

Handbook

of

the

Old

Northern Runic

Monuments

(Edinburgh:

Williams &

Norgate,

1884),tne

foldout

opposite



7/11

482

Halsall

The

broad

south-facing

and

north-facing

sides of this

magnificent

historiated

cross

present

a

program

of

sculptures carefully

designed

to

emphasize

the

need

to

humble

(and

thus

transcend)

the

body

by

rejecting

the

physical

pleasures

of the world

in

the

quest

for

spiritual

illumination.17

The

insistence

in

the Ruthwell

sculptures

on

man's

need

to

mortify

the flesh

is

modeled

on

the

examples

of Saint

John

the

Baptist

and his

fourth-century

imitators,

the desert fathers

of

mo

nasticism,

Saints

Paul

and

Anthony;

and

images

of all three

of

these

model ascetics

actually

appear

on

the

cross.

Like

the

asceticism

of

their native St. Cuthbert in stealing out of the monastery at night to

stand

for hours

immersed

in

the

icy

North

Sea,18

such

mortification of

the

flesh

represented

to

the

Anglo-Saxon

church

an

attitude of

con

temptus

mundi,

or

deliberate

dying

to

the

world

and the

body,

for

which

the

Crucifixion functioned

as

the

supreme

model for human

imitation.

It

is

on

the

narrower

east-facing

and

west-facing

sides of the Ruth

well

Cross,

which

are

devoid

of

figure sculpture,

that

the

principal

runic

inscription

appears.

In

the

flat borders

surrounding

a

vine

scroll

or

tree

of life

appear

runic

fragments

of

verse

describing

how

Christ chose death on the cross, which

loyally

shared his Passion.19

These

fragments

correspond

strikingly

to

parts

of

verses

39?64

of

the crucifixion

poem

found

in

the Vercelli

Manuscript

of

c. a.d.

1000,

the

poem

that

we

have entitled

The

Dream

of

the Rood. Transliter

ated,

the

fragments

read:

(a)

[+.nd]geredae

hinae

god alme3ttig

})a

he

wald?

on

galgu

gistiga

raodig

?[ore

.]

men

(bug)[.]

(b) [.]

ic

riicnae

?ynirjc

hmfunaes

h[/]afard

tolda ic

n\

dorstae

[&]zsmae

rae[d]u urjket

men

ba

aet[g]ad[r?

i]c

(waes)

[m]i\)

b/odae

?>ist[?]mi[?/]

biir

(c)

[+]kris[?]

waes on

rodi

hwe|3rae per

fus[ce]

fearran

kw[o]mu

[

]\>

|ilae

til

anum

ic

J)aet

al

bi[h](eald)

sa(r.)

ic

w[^]s

m?[/>]

s[or]gu[w]

gidrce[f.]d

h[n]ag[.]

p.

130;

also,

for

more

limited

photographic representations

of

more

than

one

side,

see

Elliott,

plate

XVI

and

Musset,

plate

XI,

fig.

15.

17

For

various

relevant

interpretations

of the

significance

of the

design

of the

sculp

tures on

the broad faces of the Ruthwell

Cross,

see

Fritz

Saxl,

The

Ruthwell

Cross,

fournal of

the

Warburg

and

Courtauld

Institutes,

6

(1943),

1-19;

Meyer

Shapiro,

The

Religious

Meaning

of the Ruthwell

Cross,

Art

Bulletin,

26

(1944),

231-45;

Robert

B.

Burlin,

The Ruthwell

Cross,

The

Dream

of

the

Rood,

and

the Vita

Contemplativa,

Stud

ies in Philology, 65 (i960), 23?43; and John V. Fleming, The Dream of the Rood and

Anglo-Saxon

Monasticism,

Traditio,

22

(1966),

43

?

72.

18

For

Bede's

account

of this

practice

see

Bertram

Colgrave,

Two

Lives

of

St.

Cuthbert

(Cambridge:

Cambridge

Univ.

Press,

1940),

pp.

188-90.

19

For

partial

and

not

very

clear

photographs

of the vinescrolls

and

runic borders

on

the

narrow

sides of the Ruthwell Cross

see

Elliott,

plate

XVII.



8/11

Runes and the

Mortal

Condition in

Old

English

Poetry 483

(d)

[m]i{)

s[?]re[/]um

giwundad

alegdun

hiae

Mnae

limwcerignae

gistod

du[n]

him

[.l?jeles

{he?)?{du)m

(bih)?li(l)[d]u. (h)i(

)

[/>]e(r)[.]

which,

translated

into modern

English,

runs

as

follows:

(a)

Almighty

God

bared his

body,

when

he

purposed

to

climb

the

gallows,

brave in

men's

sight

. . .

bow ...

(b)

I

. .

.

the

powerful king,

lord of

heaven. I

dared

not

bend down.

Men mocked

the

two

of

us,

both

together.

I

was

wet

with

blood

...

(c)

+

Christ

was on

the

cross.

Yet

to

this

solitary

one

there

came

noblemen, hastening from afar. I beheld all that. I was sorely

troubled

with

griefs

. . .

bowed down

. . .

(d)

Wounded with

arrows.

They

laid him

down,

weary

of limb.

They

stood beside

him,

near

the

head

of

his

body.

There

they

beheld

.

.

.20

What is

presented

in these

brief lines

carved

on

the

Ruthwell

Cross

at

the

end of the

seventh

century,

as

well

as

in

the

much-longer

poem

inscribed three

hundred

years

later

in

the

Vercelli

Book,

is

the central

paradox

of the

Christian faith:

the assertion

that

voluntary

suffering

and

death

are

the

way

to

eternal

glory.

This

paradox

is

the

source

of

the

medieval

injunction

that

man

live the

imitatio

Christi

by daily

mar

tyrdom

of the

body?a

way

of

life viewed

not

merely

as

a

disciplinary

exercise

peculiar

to

ascetic monks

like

St.

Cuthbert

but

as a

universal

necessity

arising

directly

from

such Biblical

texts

as

Matthew

10:38?

39:

And

he who

does

not

take his

cross

and

follow

me

is

not

worthy

of

me.

He

who

finds his life will lose

it,

and

he who

loses his life for

my

sake will

find it.

Clearly,

the ancestral

runic

letters,

which

once

were

associated with the

irremediable

pain

and loss

recorded

on

pagan

Germanic

funeral

monuments,

here

on

the Ruthwell

Cross

are

being

used

to

describe

actions that furnish

a

blueprint

for

transmuting

death into

victory.

Later,

when

Cynewulf

decided

to

insert into

his

vernacular

verse

translations the runic

symbols

that

spell

out

his

name,

his

purpose

was

clear:

to

enable

readers

to

pray

for

the

well-being

of

his soul

on

the

Day

of

Judgment.

As

he

explicitly

states

following

his

runic

signature

at

the end

of

Juliana:

Bidde

ic

monna

gehwone

g?mena

cynnes,

\>e Jd?s gied

wraece,

JDaet

he

mec

neodful

bi

noman

minum

20

For

a

clear

version of the runic

inscriptions

on

the

Ruthwell

Cross

(which

are

almost

impossible

to

photograph)

see

the

drawings

used

as

frontispiece

to

the

B. Dickins and

A. S.

C.

Ross

edition of

The

Dream

of

the

Rood

(London:

Methuen,

1954).

The

trans

literation

and

translation of these

inscriptions given

in

this

paper

are

based

on

Page,

pp.

150-51.



9/11

484

Halsall

gemyne

modig,

ond meotud bidde

J)aet

me

heofona heim

helpe gefremme,

meahta

waldend,

on

{Dam

mielan

daege.

I

pray

each individual of the human

race

who

recites

this

poem

that,

zealous and

magnanimous,

he will remember

me

by

name

and

pray

the

Lord

that

He,

Protector

of the

heavens,

mighty

Ruler,

will afford

me

help

on

that

great

day.21

In

effect,

within

each

of

his

poems,

Cynewulf

is

creating

for

himself

the

verbal

equivalent

of

a

Christian

grave

monument.

Of

course,

one

could

argue,

on

the basis of

such documents

as

the

Isruna

Tract

and various scattered

instances

where runic

clues

are

sup

plied

for

Old

English

riddles,

that

Cynewulf

chose

to use runes

and

their

associated

rune

names

merely

in

order

to

play

a

learned

game,

by

devising

a

cryptographic

puzzle

for his readers

to

solve;

and,

in

deed,

this

may

have formed

some

small

part

of

his

purpose.

My

con

tention,

however,

is that he intended

to

convey

a

great

deal

more

by

his

use

of

runes

than

a

potentially

self-defeating

challenge

to

fellow

scholars

to

discover his

identity

in

order

to

remember

him in their

prayers.

Like the

seventh-century

builders

of

the Ruthwell

Cross,

Cynewulf was consciously exploiting the traditional connection be

tween

runic

symbols

and

grief

over

the inevitable dissolution of the

human

body.

It

cannot

be

an

accident that the

passages

in

his

four

poems

into which

are

woven

the runic

symbols

corresponding

to

C,

Y,

N,

(E),

W,

U, L,

and

F

invariably

consist of vivid

depictions

of mortal

man's

dilemma

in

the face

of his

coming

death

and

judgment.22

A

single

example

should suffice

here

to

demonstrate this

aspect

of the

nature

of

all four runic

signatures.

The

poem

Elene deals with the

power

of

the

cross to

bring

victory

and renewal:

not

merely

the martial

victory

of

Constantine

over

Max

entius and the subsequent reestablishment of a unified temporal em

pire,

but

a

far

more

significant

kind

of

spiritual

victory

over

sin and

death?a

victory

which is

decisively

demonstrated when

the

True

Cross is identified

through

its

ability

to

restore

a

dead

man

to

life and

simultaneously

to

rob the

devil of his wonted

prey.23

In

the

epilogue

to

the

poem,

Cynewulf

describes

how,

being

old and

near

death

on ac

21

See

Juliana,

11.

718-23,

in the

Krapp

and Dobbie edition of

The Exeter

Book,

p.

133.

22

For

a

convenient

anthology

of the four

Cynewulfian signature

passages

from

the

Fates

of

the

Apostles,

Elene,

Christ

II,

and

Juliana

(with

appended

translations)

see

appen

dix

A

to

my

edition of The Old

English

Rune

Poem,

pp. 177-80.

For

substantial discus

sions of the passages in literary terms see D. W. Frese, The Art of Cynewulf's Runic

Signatures,

Anglo-Saxon

Poetry:

Essays

in

Appreciation,

ed.

L.

E.

Nicholson

and

D. W.

Frese

(Notre

Dame:

Univ. of Notre

Dame

Press,

1975),

pp.

312-34,

as

well

as

Daniel

G.

Calder,

Cynewulf

(Boston:

Twayne/G.

K.

Hall,

1981),

passim.

23

See

Elene,

11.

876-924

in

G.

R

Krapp's

edition of The Vercelli

Book,

The

Anglo

Saxon Poetic

Records,

2

(New

York: Columbia

Univ.

Press,

1932).



10/11

Runes

and theMortal

Condition

in Old

English

Poetry

485

count

of his

mortal

body,

he

finally

learned the full

story

of

the

in

vention of the

cross

and

how,

as

a

result,

he

underwent

a

spiritual

renewal,

whereby

he

was

freed

from the shackles of

worldly

anxiety

and

gained

the

gift

of

song.

The

signature

passage

that

follows elabo

rates

on

the

misery

of the

poet's

previous

unenlightened

condition,

making

double

use

of the runic

symbols,

not

only

for

their

letter val

ues

in

spelling

out

cynewulf

but also for their

rune

names as

Old

English

words

essential

to

the

meaning

of the

text:

A

waes

secg

o? ?aet

cnyssed

cearwelmum,

h-

drusende,

]3eah

he

in medohealle ma?mas

J)ege,

aeplede

gold.

F??-

gnornode

+

gefera,

nearusorge

dreah,

enge

rune,

J)aer

him

M-

fore

milpa?as

maet,

modig

J)raegde

wirum

gewlenced.

h

is

geswi?rad,

gomen

aefter

gearum,

geogoS

is

gecyrred,

aid onmedla.

h-

waes

geara

geogo?hades glaem.

Nu

synt

geardagas

aefter

fyrstmearce

for?

gewitene,

lifwynne geliden,

swa

f-

toglideS,

flodas

gefysde.

Y-

aeghwam

bi?

laene under

lyfte

Always

until then this

warrior

was

buffeted

by

sorrow-surges,

like

a

fail

ing

cen

(or 'torch'),

even

though

in

the mead-hall he

received

treasures

of

apple-shaped gold.

Yr

(traditionally 'yew-bow',

but here

probably

a

hom

onym

related

to

irre

['wrath'

or,

more

likely,

'the

object

of

wrath'])

la

mented;

the

companion

of

nyd

(or

'hardship')

endured

oppressive

grief,

the

constraining

mystery

(or

perhaps

the

constraining

rune,

i.e.,

+

it

self),

even

when before

him

his

eh

(or

'horse')

measured the milestoned

roads,

the

proud

one

galloped

in its

filigreed

trappings.

Wyn

(or

'joy')

has

dwindled,

playfulness

with

the

passage

of

years;

youth

is

trans

formed,

the

pride

of former

days.

Once the

splendour

of

youth

was ur

(or

'ours').

Now

in the fullness of time the old

days

are

gone,

the

pleasures

of

living

have

departed,

even

as

lagu

(or

'water')

glides

away,

the hasten

ing

currents.

For all

men

under heaven

feoh

(or

'wealth')

is

fleeting.24

Here,

as

in

all his

signature

passages,

Cynewulf

employs

the runic

symbols

inherited

from the

pagan

past

in

order

to

teach

a

lesson

about the

transitory

nature

both of

bodily

delights

and of

the

doomed

world that for

a

time

supplies

them.

In

so

doing,

he follows

the

same

pattern

of

thought

as

the author of the Old

English

Rune

Poem,25

who,

24

For the signature passage in Elene see Vercelli MS, folio i33r in Celia Sisam, The

Vercelli

Book,

Early English

Manuscripts

in

Facsimile,

20

(Copenhagen:

Rosenkilde

&

Bagger,

1976)

and

also the

Krapp

edition,

p.

101,

11.

i256b~7oa.

25

For

The

Old

English

Rune

Poem

see

George

Hickes,

Linguarum

Veterum

Septen

trionalium Thesaurus

Grammatico-Criticus

et

Archaeologicus

(Oxford,

1705),

p.

135;

this

is

conveniently

reproduced

in

reduced

form

on

p. 84

of

my

edition.



11/11

486

Halsall

after

dealing

with

the

variety

of

earthly

phenomena

embodied

in

the

traditional

rune

names,

closes his

poem

with

the

following

stanza

de

signed

to

summarize

the

whole:

T

[ear]

by]} egle

eorla

gehwylcun,

?onn faestl?ce

fiasse

onginnej)

hr?w

c?lian,

hr?san

c?osan

bl?c

t?

gebeddan;

bl?da

gedreosaj),

wynna

gew?ta]},

w?ra

gesw?caf).

Ear

(or

earth)

is

loathsome

to

every

man,

when

irresistibly

the

flesh,

the

dead

body,

begins

to

grow

cold,

the livid

one

to

choose earth

as

its

bedfellow;

fruits

fail,

joys

vanish,

man-made

covenants are

broken.26

It

is

my

contention in

this

paper

that runic

symbols

were

employed

by

both

Cynewulf

and

the

anonymous

author of the

Old

English

Rune

Poem

in

order

to

emphasize

the theme of human

mortality,

that

this

was

a

traditional

Anglo-Saxon

usage

of

these inherited

symbols,

and

that

ultimately

the tradition

derived from the

pre-Christian

practice

of

incising

runes on

Continental Germanic

memorial

stones.

The Venerable Bede's well-known account of the conversion of

Kent

is

relevant

once

again

in

this

context.

There

he

quotes

the often

cited

letter of

Pope

Gregory

the

Great

to

Abbot

Mellitus,

in

which that

wise

human

psychologist

advised

his missionaries

not to

destroy

the

pagan

temples

of

the

Anglo-Saxons,

but

to

reconsecrate

them:

Aqua

benedicta

fiat,

in

eisdem fanis

aspergatur,

altaria

construantur,

reliquiae

ponantur

. . .

dum

gens

ipsa

eadem fana

sua non

uidet

destru?,

de

corde

errorem

deponat,

et

Deum

uerum

cognoscens

ac

adorans,

ad

loca

quae

consueuit

familiarius

concurrat.

Take

holy

water

and

sprinkle

it

in

these

shrines,

build

altars and

place

relics in them . . .When this people see that their shrines are not de

stroyed

they

will

be

able

to

banish

error

from

their

hearts

and

be

more

ready

to

come

to

the

places they

are

familiar

with,

but

now

recognizing

and

worshipping

the

true

God.27

In

the

Christian

baptism

of

runes

and their

reemployment

for ortho

dox

religious

purposes,

we

have further

evidence

of

the

far-reaching

possibilities

inherent

in

the

Gregorian

missionary

strategy

of

intro

ducing

the unknown

via

the

known.

26See

Halsall,

The Old

English

Rune

Poem,

p.

92,

11.

90-94.

27

See B.

Colgrave

and

R. A. B.

Mynors,

Bede5 Ecclesiastical

History

of

the

English

People

(Oxford:

Clarendon

Press,

1969),

i.

30.

runes and the mortal condition

Documents